poe-48833 Review of Blade of the Immortal

Blade of the Immortal (2008)

"All samurai walk the path of Nothingness..."

[10/10 · 25 January 2016]

BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL was one of my favorite Manga for a long time because of the artwork (nor was it was badly written, either). Manji's irreverent tone made him more Contemporary in his attitude than most of the heroes or villains in Period Manga and the Rogue's Gallery of villains rivaled the lineup in Chester Gould's DICK TRACEY (which strip later influenced the BATMAN comics). The violence of the Manga is toned WAY down for this show, but it's all so beautifully rendered (especially the painted backgrounds) that one can make allowances for that. There are characters that've been added to make everything more "viewer friendly" (though the commercial breaks are as irritating on a DVD as they are during broadcast- if shorter), and Rin's bloodthirsty desire for revenge is also toned down, but at least we see Sabato in all his grisly glory, with the heads of two women (one of whom is Rin's mother) bookending his own (they've been grafted onto his body so that he "won't be without them").